As the world grapples in witnessing Israeli’s relentless occupation and genocide in Palestine amidst other humanitarian crises, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin took a moment to send a heartfelt message, calling for unity, kindness and hope.
Martin spoke to the audience on stage during their performance in Tokyo recently, asking them to send love to people going through difficulties.
"Right now there is so much trouble in the world, so many terrible things happening. Most people on earth are full of love and full of kindness, compassion.
"I don’t want to judge anybody else for being themselves. We don’t believe in oppression, or occupation, terrorism or genocide, nothing like that," he said on stage to the Japanese crowd.
He continued to say that they believe in loving each other, being kind and supporting one another.
"We all have the same ups and downs as humans and when somebody else is struggling, we have to send all of our love and kindness to them.
"Wherever you want to send this now to the world, you send it. You can send it to Gaza and Israel, you can send it to the West Bank, Azerbaijan, Albania, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Sudan, Elo Congo, your sister, your mother, brother - anyone who you feel needs love from Tokyo,” he said.
While some social media users praised his actions, others had wished he had given a clearer stance on current genocide in Palestine.
The band often takes moments during their concerts to advocate for kindness and peace.
In a video clip of their concert in 2019, Martin dedicated a song in response to someone holding a sign that said "Sing 4 Gaza”.
"I believe that everybody has equal rights to be on earth and equal rights to go anywhere they want. We don’t agree with oppression or suppression of any kind. We stand for love and for peace,” said Martin.
Amid talks of Coldplay's solidarity with Palestinians as well as other oppressed states, videos showing Coldplay singing Israel's national anthem, known as the hatikvah, started surfacing on social media platforms between Oct 25 to 28. Many pro-Israeli accounts started sharing the clip and declaring the band's stance for the colonisers. Internet users, however, were quick to react stating that it was a fake and the clip was originally them performing the song Fix You.
Users also said the audio had utilised AI to match Martin's voice to the hatikvah.
"Very fake. The footage is from their performance of Fix You when they were performing at the O2 Shepherd's Bush in 2021. I was at that gig and they definitely didn't play whatever this is. It doesn't even sound remotely like Chris - it's either AI generated or someone has taken another song and tried to make it sound more like Chris and failed miserably," user named SamBateson said on reddit.
"Very obviously fake. It doesn’t sound anything like Chris at all, and the band’s image and name being used in this kind of context to spread propaganda is disgusting," user Material-Elephant188 added to the thread.
Checks by Sinar Daily later confirmed that majority of the videos were taken down, with reports stating that the band themselves had requested it be done.
Coldplay has long expressed its support for Palestine. Back in 2011, Coldplay posted "Freedom for Palestine" on its official Facebook page and urged fans to listen to the song, which was initiated by the non-profit organisation One World.
This led to some Jewish fans condemning the band and promised to boycott them. The song's chorus, "We are the people/ this is our time/ stand up, sing out/ for Palestine," was deemed controversial.
Coldplay had also collaborated with a Palestinian band called Le Trio Joubran, producing a song called Arabesque. In 2017, Martin and his team visited Palestine, where he said it was to enrich their perspective and seek inspiration for their new album.
Coldplay is currently in Jakarta, Indonesia and will soon make their way to Kuala Lumpur next week as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour.
While fans are delighted to anticipated their very first performance on Malaysian shores, their upcoming presence in the country wasn't well-received by certain political and religious leaders.
Most recently, Malaysian Muslim Solidarity (Isma) Chairman Datuk Zamri Hashim urged authorities to reconsider the concert as the timing was deemed insensitive amid the Palestine humanitarian crisis.
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